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Title: Old Friend from Far Away: The Practice of Writing Memoir
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Manufacturer: Free Press
List Price: $25.00
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| Old Friend from Far Away: The Practice of Writing Memoir by Free Press Natalie Gold berg | | Of what I have read so far, I really enjoy Ms. Goldberg's writing. Very down to earth and frank. | | Old Friend from Far Away: The Practice of Writing Memoir by Free Press A Juicy Treat | In Natalie Goldberg's new book, Old Friend from Far Away, the theme is in its subtitle: The Practice of Writing Memoir. Best known for her seminal book, Writing Down the Bones, Goldberg once again preaches the dogma of PRACTICE... Ten minutes of freehand writing on any topic. Just get it down.
This is not a book about how to put together a memoir, what topics to write about, or how to publish. Plenty of other memoir-writing books cover those topics. Goldberg is 100% cheerleader--reminding us over and over to "Shut Up and Write" because what we have to say is fleeting and so important. There are no great answers for who we are; don't wait for them. Pick up the pen and right now, in ten furious minutes, tell the story of your life. I'm not kidding. Ten minutes of continuous writing is much more expedient than ten years of musing and getting nowhere.
Natalie Goldberg is first and foremost a poet, so you can expect the pages to drip with delicious imagery. She is particularly adept at food analogies:
"Memoir gives you the ability to plop down like the puddle that forms and spreads from the shattering of a glass of milk on the kitchen floor."
"You crack open sentences, like egg shells letting the bright yellow, the clear white, in all its unorderliness, fall out."
The author advises us to jump in wherever we like; this is not a book to be read from front to back. In fact, she wants us to WRITE our way through the pages in whatever order we desire. And because life is not linear, you want to approach writing memoir sideways, using the deepest kind of thinking to sort through the layers. You want reflection to discover what the real connections are.
If you want to dive in and find exactly the inspiration you need, she provides advice in an index of phrases--a great place to start.
"Go for the jugular."
"Don't try to make it pretty."
"Trust your insides to lead you."
If you want to read some great memoirs, Goldberg provides a list of her favorites (and some of mine), including: Anne Lamott, Mary Karr, Maxine Hong Kingston. She features an eclectic mix of memoirists within her text from James Baldwin and Zora Neale Hurston to Bob Dylan and Allen Ginsburg.
If you are already an old friend of Goldberg, you will find comfort in her newest tome. If you are new to her work, you are in for a juicy treat.
by Karen Ryan
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women
| | Old Friend from Far Away: The Practice of Writing Memoir by Free Press So Grateful for My "Old Friend" | I read this book through once, without doing any of the exercises, and I felt as if I was sitting across the table from my old friend, Natalie. I felt like we were drinking tea and chatting over tasty cookies and not worrying about the clock.... I was wearing my favorite comfy-yet-stylish sweat clothes... I am not sure what she is wearing but I do know she looks stunningly beautiful.
Then I started again, reading... and working through the exercises.
I am a life-writer so I write many essays that involve memoir type writing. I wasn't so pleased with Natalie - yet I was deeply pleased to write with Natalie... one of my earliest writings from the book I entitled, "Natalie Goldberg goes for the jugular" because the places I went from her prompting were places I would not have chosen to go on my own.
Her simple prompt on page 14 was: "Tell me what you will miss when you die."
This has been a tough year. I didn't WANT to go there yet I wanted, so much, to go there.
Most recently, I had an "a-ha" that was 18 years in the making, thanks to Natalie's simple prompt. Her prompting is so simple, yet so compelling - like on page 240:
"even though you are keeping a list, for the heck of it: do ten minutes right now. All the times you remember saying good-bye. Go. Ten minutes."
like on page 282:
You gave your mind a lot of galloping room. Now you need to pick up the reins and direct it to trot down a path, your path. You can't take the whole wheat field with you but you can canter through it and say you were here. Go ahead. You grew the wheat, now cut it down, make your own shadow line through the yellow stalks. Don't worry. The wheat is golden, waiting for this moment."
I read a review that said there wasn't enough "how-to" within these pages... not enough "technical stuff" on memoir writing. There isn't much technical and yet there is so much guidance beyond the technical... and I suppose there is a message there in writing your memoir. It isn't about the technical.
There are some pages which are only the prompt, not any additional verbage. (The "What will you miss" prompt is the only thing on the page.
What does that do for the reader/writer? Well, for me it opened up soooo much.
I might have lost it if it were words among other verbage.
Can you tell I am a huge fan?
I have to admit I wasn't so enamored with Natalie's last book (The Great Failure)... the review I wrote of that one was almost painful for me to write yet I understand, now, more of her reason for writing it and presenting it exactly as she did.
I have recommended this book to so many people, I have lost track. It only seems fitting to recommend it to readers on this page, as well.
My life is better because of Natalie Goldberg's presence at the page. My life is better because I have read (and worked through) Old Friend from Far Away.... I am grateful.
| | Old Friend from Far Away: The Practice of Writing Memoir by Free Press Old Friend From Far Away | | This book is wonderful. It offers percise exercises that draw out your innner most feelings and thoughts. It takes you to a place where your thoughts and words seem to fly out to the page as if they cannot wait to escape. | | Old Friend from Far Away: The Practice of Writing Memoir by Free Press Feels like meeting an old friend from far away | Old Friend from Far Away is supposed to be about writing a memoir. It's really a set of exercises to help readers begin writing about themselves and their memories, interspersed with tantalizing glimpses of the author's own life.
On the positive side: The topics for the ten-minute timed writings (Goldberg's significant contribution to the world of writing) seem like fun. She teaches us to see details, not get derailed into abstraction. Her own writing demonstrates these principles. The author's own memories -- all too brief -- are the best part of the book. I loved her stories of studying with Alan Ginsberg and finding an unusual coffee shop for writing. As always, her writing elevates mundane events and gives them meaning.
But I was disappointed to see so many pages with just a sentence or two of writing exercises. Is she just tired of writing, I wondered, forcing herself to finish her book to meet the demands of her publisher? We don't get the kind of background Goldberg shares in earlier books, especially Thunder and Lightning. We get snapshots when it would be nice to have a movie. We don't get new exercises. And I'm not sure we get helpful insights into memoir as a genre.
For publication (or a good review, if you self-publish), memoirs need to make meaning of a life. The strongest memoirs carry a theme of struggle and redemption. We read about someone's life and something resonates with our own. Or we see this story a part of a bigger theme, giving us new insights and ideas. Weak memoirs leave the "so what" question unanswered.
Maybe that comes later...after you've written dozens and dozens of timed writings. Maybe it's not possible till you realize you've got to face down the truths that Natalie Goldberg urges us to expose in writing.
Or maybe I just feel frustrated because I know a few people who ought to be writing their memoirs. This book won't help them.
The last part of the book includes a list of published memoirs, a curious selection. Although Goldberg has made a recording with Julia Cameron, and Cameron's blurb appears here, there is no mention of Cameron's own memoir. There's an obvious allusion to the James Frey story (although no names are mentioned) and the author briefly describes some memoirs she likes.
Ultimately, the title describes the way many readers relate to the author herself. Those who like Natalie Goldberg will pick up this book to visit with an old friend. What's new in her life? Will we get an update of what happened since she wrote about the monk and the bartender?
Alas, our visit will be more like a fast encounter at an airport, catching up between changing planes, than a long satisfying conversation in one of those coffee shops where Natalie Goldberg used to sit and write. She really is an old friend from far away, and she's not getting any closer.
| | Old Friend from Far Away: The Practice of Writing Memoir by Free Press Product Description | | Twenty years ago Natalie Goldberg's classic, Writing Down the Bones, broke new ground in its approach to writing as a practice. Now, Old Friend from Far Away -- her first book since Writing Down the Bones to focus solely on writing -- reaffirms Goldberg's status as a foremost teacher of writing, and completely transforms the practice of writing memoir. To write memoir, we must first know how to remember. Through timed, associative, and meditative exercises, Old Friend from Far Away guides you to the attentive state of thought in which you discover and open forgotten doors of memory. At once a beautifully written celebration of the memoir form, an innovative course full of practical teachings, and a deeply affecting meditation on consciousness, love, life, and death, Old Friend welcomes aspiring writers of all levels and encourages them to find their unique voice to tell their stories. Goldberg's enormously popular workshops have given countless students the ability to heed the call to write. Old Friend from Far Away recreates her trademark workshop style with its terse, demanding writing "sprints" that train the hand and mind to quicken their pace and give up conscious control. These exercises divert the eye from the obvious and redirect it to the tactile details we miss, the embarrassments we pass over, and the complications we overlook in the blur of everyday living. Goldberg writes, "No one says it, but writing induces the state of love." Old Friend from Far Away guides us into that state of love, where heightened attention and a rhythm of focus allow the patterns and details of the past to emerge on the page. Millions of Americans want to write about their lives. With Old Friend as the road map for getting started and following through, writers and readers will gain a deeper understanding of their own minds, learn to connect with their senses in order to find the detail and truth that give their written words power and authenticity, and unfold the natural structure of the stories they carry within. An absolute joy to read, it is a profound affirmation of the capacity of the written word to remember the past, free us from it, and forever transform theway we think about ourselves and our lives. Like Writing Down the Bones, it will become an old friend to which readers return again and again. |
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